This Was is the bands first release from 1968 on the Island label to immediate critical acclaim. The album features a stunning mixture of blues, jazz and rock, the features which raised it above the releases of many of Jethro Tull’s blues contemporaries was the quirky songs and amazing breathy flute playing of Ian Anderson. The album features a cover version of jazz king Roland Kirks “Serenade To A Cuckoo”. “Cats Squirrel” is an excellent Mick Abrahams guitar piece. Within weeks of the album being released Mick Abrahams left the group so the album is widely known as This Was Jethro Tull.
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My favourite is "Dharma for one" what catchy flute and sudorific hard riff (have a listen also on the long version on "Living in the past" ... Tomas
silver-fir4 09.06.2006 01:51
This was the past. The future sounded somewhat otherwise ... But not a bad record. In the tradition of the blues like Cream. Mick Abrahams played a great blues guitar. But one can already recognise the special Tull sound with the flute. A bit experimental and jazzy on "Serenade of a cuckoo". But the radio listernes must have been astonished with the new single "Song for Jeffrey" ... a voice like an old man (21 at age) and this magnificant and temperamentful flute ... Tull fans should buy it, blues fans too .... Good review Tomas